ABSTRACT
In an article in the American Scientist [8], N. R. Franks points out that if 100 army ants (each of which has fewer than 100,000 neurons) are placed on a flat surface, they will walk in circles until they die of exhaustion. On the other hand, a colony of 500,000 such ants (hav ing one-half as many neurons as a typical human brain) is capable of flexible problem solving, far exceeding the capacity of the individ ual ants. For example, such a colony can build nests in accordance with some sophisticated architecture; it can regulate the temperature within ±1°C inside a nest made up of the bodies of ants; it can raid in one day 200 meters through a forest while maintaining a steady compass heading; it appears to follow rules of economic investment theory in matters of colony propagation; and the like. The solutions of relatively complex problems of this type are accomplished through communication among individual ants (and thus, among neurons). Franks notes that the communication among neurons occurs much faster in the case of the human brain than in the case of an ant colony.
